


Playing Santa

by Rinari7



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Christmas, F/F, Gen, Holiday Fic Exchange, How do I tag something that's platonic with a few butterflies?, Pre-Relationship, Sort of? - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-11 21:14:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9026950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rinari7/pseuds/Rinari7
Summary: It's Supergirl's fault the snowstorm is blocking northern routes to National City, sort of. So it's Kara's fault Carter's present won't arrive on time, sort of.She decides to fix it.Of course nothing is ever quite that simple.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Musetotheworld](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Musetotheworld/gifts).



Kara eyed the news screens for what must have been the hundredth time that morning already, biting her lip.  
  
“Reports of this freakish weather phenomenon continue to roll in. There wasn't a cloud in the sky yesterday, but now there's already three feet of snow falling within in a large area to the north of National City, and it’s showing no sign of stopping.  
  
"Meteorologists point to an extreme local cooling of the atmosphere, gauging it to have happened about eight hours ago, although the cause remains unknown.”  
  
She really hadn't meant to cause a major weather event — that was what the delusional scientist of the week had tried to do, something about controlling the world if you control the forces of nature — but she had accidentally released a _lot_ of that coolant flying the damaged device away from the city, and… well. Not one of her proudest moments.  
  
“Several major transportation routes run to and from National City through this area, including the interstate and the train lines, effectively cutting off access from the north. All travelers seem to have been able to clear the area since the snow first began, before the roads were closed for safety reasons. Some of the suburbs are seeing snow, as well, but far less compared to what has been reported closer to the center of the storm.  
  
"We certainly hope you have all your presents hidden in the back of your closets and all your relatives already with you, because it doesn't look like this is going to be cleared until after —”  
  
  
  
“Keira!”  
  
  
  
Straightening, Kara took a deep breath and scampered out from behind her desk, notepad in hand, to confront the CEO. “Yes, Miss Grant?"  
  
“I needed the proofs for the next issue an hour ago. Get me the same chicken wrap you brought me last week for lunch. And call all the stores in the city that sell board games and ask if they have _The Hero-King_ , Limited Gold Edition, Paladin version.”  
  
Kara paused her frenzied scribbling, for a moment. “All of them?”  
  
“Apparently the incompetents that ship such things can’t keep to their own schedule. It was due to arrive here two days ago, but I have been informed that between the previous delay and this ‘act of God’ it won’t be here in time for Christmas.” Pursing her lips, Cat stared at the window for a split second.  
  
“I’m sorry.” Kara grimaced.  
  
“Why?” Cat’s gaze snapped to her, and she set her palms on her desk and leaned over it, elbows locked. “Is it your fault?”  
  
Kara’s breath hissed through her teeth as she inhaled, her eyes wide. “I — no, of course not. How could it be my fault? I’m just a regular, old human. Like everyone else.” Forcing the air from her lungs, she tried to chuckle, her grin a panicked one.  
  
Cat settled gracefully into her chair, rolling her eyes. “Never apologize for anything that is not your fault, Keira, unless you want to become everyone’s scapegoat or therapist. Do you?”  
  
“I — No, I was just — expressing sympathy… I’ll get right on it, Miss Grant.”  
  
Glass offered no protection, not even from a person’s gaze, but she could breathe a little more easily once one of those transparent walls separated her from Cat Grant.  
  
  
However, none of the stores in the city had that particular obscure strategy game in stock, the one place that actually claimed to carry it regretfully informing her they’d sold the last one yesterday.  
  
“I’m sor— I know it’s not my fa—” Kara fidgeted in front of her boss, under the glare Cat seemed to have chosen as her mask for the day. “I _regret to inform you_ that I wasn’t able to find a copy in the city. Of the game. For Carter. They did have other editions of the same game, and —”  
  
“Carter has all the others already.” Cat exhaled with exasperation — for anyone else, it might have been called something close to sigh, but this held no resignation, only a sort of contained fury. “I’ll find something else.”  
  
“I can —” Kara took a deep breath as Cat turned her I’m-not-displeased-with-you-yet-but-I-have-the-feeling-I-will-be-soon gaze on her. “Uhm, Miss Grant, I know you insist on doing these sort of things, with Carter, yourself, and I admire that so much about you, but I got some recommendations on other games he might like, and —”  
  
“Didn’t you have some articles to proofread and get to me in” —Cat glanced pointedly at her watch— “forty-three minutes?”  
  
“Yes, Miss Grant.”  
  
  
  
Another deep breath, as she set the articles down on Cat’s desk in front of her. “Miss Grant — could I have the tracking number and the shipping invoice?”  
  
“What for?” Cat snapped, removing her glasses to better stare at her.  
  
“I was thinking I could maybe arrange for it to be delivered some other way…”  
  
“I refuse to risk anyone’s safety or wellbeing attempting to deliver a _game_ through this storm. Nor will I allow you to ask it of anyone.”  
  
“No, of course not. But may I see what I can do? If there’s something I can do.” Of course there was something she could do. She could get through the storm, no problem. And it _was_ kind of her fault.  
  
A moment’s pause, and then Cat turned to her computer. “I'll e-mail you all the information you might need.”  
  
“Thank you.” Kara smiled, and maybe something in Cat’s expression softened, for a fraction of a moment, before Kara turned and headed back to her desk.  
  
  
  
It wasn’t hard, to find out precisely where the package was, but she couldn’t get away until the workday was over. Cat had asked, just before leaving, if she had “made any progress on that voluntary assignment,” with that tone that tried to declare how much she didn’t care but only revealed to Kara how much she did. Kara hated how her regretful half-smile and “I’m still working on it, I promise,” had chased away that hint of hope in Cat’s eyes she hadn’t noticed had been there, until it was gone.  
  
  
  
Supergirl wasted no time in printing the pickup slip, dumping her purse and normal clothes in her apartment, and taking off.  
  
  
  
She tried to be patient with the harried postal workers, and the outfit and the way she set down right in front of the building probably helped, and it took less time than she had expected to retrieve the package. But it was larger than she had envisioned it, and awkward to handle, and she didn’t want to damage it in flight. Snowflakes hitting cardboard at 500 miles an hour was out of the question.  
So between her lowered speed and the detour around the storm, it was almost midnight by the time she returned, almost Christmas Eve, and no time to go ringing doorbells — not that that would have been a good idea in her Supergirl costume anyways, but she almost had, until she thought to check the time.  
  
  
  
She landed on the balcony instead, with some half-formed idea about leaving the package out on the table, but the metal surface was cool to her touch and she realized just how exposed it would be out here, too. And what if Cat didn't find it here?  
  
She had her phone, though; Kara could text Cat that she had the package, that she could bring it by whenever Miss Grant might want.  
  
Hastily, eagerly, she set the box down on the table and dug her phone out, pulling up Cat’s texts — and froze, as the sound of footsteps nearby reached her ears. Light suddenly spilled over the patio, and Kara blinked as the door slid open.  
  
  
  
“I thought I saw a caped figure —” Cat abruptly stopped and took in the entirety of the scene before her: Supergirl leaning up against her railing, her assistant’s black glittery phone in one hand, the other laid atop a box plastered with the logo of Crow’s Call Games, clearly addressed to Catherine Grant.  
  
It was maybe the first time Kara had ever seen her display genuine surprise, but she recovered quickly. “Well, I can't say I'm really shocked. I had suspected.”  
  
Kara just barely didn't drop her phone as she hurried to shove it back into her pocket. “I —” She cleared her throat. “Suspected what?”  
  
“Don't play games with me, Kara. There were too many indications for them all to be coincidences.” Cat slowly approached the table, never taking her eyes off of Kara, like a panther stalking. “Don't make me list them all.”  
  
“I — I'm — really not —”  
  
Cat simply stared at her steadily, the barest hint of a smug smile tugging on her lips as she pulled her own phone out of the pocket of her dress, and hit one of the contacts on her speed dial.  
  
Kara Danvers' ringtone for her boss split the air, until Kara abruptly silenced it, swallowing. Folding her arms over chest, she lifted her chin, her tone sullen with displeasure as she spoke. “So when does the exposé come out?”  
  
“Now why would I write an exposé on your identity?” Cat slid her phone back into her pocket, arching her eyebrows at her assistant.  
  
“Isn't that what you do? Let the whole world know the truth?” Tense, Kara pressed her arms closer to her stomach, and took a breath to steel herself.  
  
“The world does not need to know that National City’s hero wears cardigans that ought to be burned on sight and took two entire days to get my coffee order right.They need to know that she has a human family, that she knows what loss feels like, that she still believes in good in the world, that she cares so much about the teeming masses she'd likely rip her own heart out if someone needed hers." There was an undertone to her voice Kara couldn't quite pin down, displeased yet proud, passionate yet disappointed. "They need Supergirl to rescue them, to inspire them and give them hope, not to hear about her spending her days running layouts to and from the art department, fetching coffee, ordering lunch, and proofreading all the inch-above-mediocre articles her boss can't be bothered to.”  
  
“So you won't tell anyone?” Kara bit her lip, worried at it, almost let her arms drop to her sides, almost.  
  
“We'll discuss this properly next week.”  
  
Kara shifted, pressing her lips together.  
  
“Until then, I will keep your little secret.”  
  
Exhaling, slowly, Kara nodded. She didn't thank her, though, and maybe that was the reason Cat smiled.  
  
Kara basked in that smile, for the moments it was granted to her, as Cat laid a hand on the box, just barely brushing Kara’s fingers, before she drew the precious package towards herself to hold it, to practically hug it against her midsection.  
  
“As much as I appreciate what you’ve done for me — for Carter — tonight, I hope you have better things to do with your time than play Santa for the rest of the evening.”  
  
Kara nodded, slowly. Not better things to do, maybe, and Eliza and Alex knew not to wait on her — at least Alex did, and would have told their mother as much — but she did really like their Christmas movie marathons.  
  
“Then I would suggest you do that.” A different smile, a more wry one, brief, but a smile nonetheless.  
  
Kara nodded, her stomach doing a backflip as she returned the smile with a far broader one of her own. “Merry Christmas, Miss Grant.”  
  
She was already halfway to her apartment again when she heard the response, spoken softly: “Merry Christmas, Kara. And thank you.”  
  
(She nearly crashed through the 27th floor of the neighboring building.)

**Author's Note:**

> From tumblr user always-atyour-side's prompt: "Due to a freak snow storm caused by one of Supergirl's latest battles, Carter's present from Cat is delayed in shipping. Cat hates letting her son down, so the delay puts her in a bad mood at CatCo. Kara notices, and feeling guilty flies out to track down the package and hand deliver it. This reveals her identity to Cat, because Kara doesn't think her plans through."
> 
> I might not have stuck to the prompt exaaactly, but I hope it's close enough. :)  
> Also my first time trying to write for this fandom so... *crossing fingers*


End file.
